Dear , Happy 1st Anniversary to my dear BBMessenger subscribers! I started this newsletter in February 2012 with 24 subscribers; we are now at 118 and growing! (Please continue forwarding the newsletter on to your friends!) Thank you for helping the Lev LaLev bat mitzvah program grow. With each new mitzvah project we are better able to help the orphaned girls in Israel, and together build them a brighter future.         I look forward to reporting even more bat mitzvah, and BEYOND, projects in February of 2014. What do you think? Can we beat our record of 34 mitzvah projects last year? Sheena Levi Director of Outreach sheena@levlalev.com

Promote the Gala Bat Mitzvah! Since I was given the event date, I’ve been tirelessly working to raise funds for 17 orphaned girls from the Home in Netanya who hope to celebrate their Bat Mitzvah together on February 18th!  We have made great strides over the last year with the help of our mitzvah girls, but still have a ways to go. If you know of any synagogues, JCC's, Jewish federations, schools, etc. that you think could help, I would deeply appreciate it if you forwarded them the link: support.levlalev.com/gala. Or even better, start a fundraising event in your hometown!

17 girls from the Rubin-Zeffren Children’s Home, Netanya, Israel on their Gala Bat Mitzvah this month! Go to support.levlalev.com/gala to send them your Mazel Tov wishes.  Megan Rait, Long Island, NY on her bat mitzvah this month! Megan is hosting a raffle to raise funds to help the 17 Lev LaLev Bat Mitzvah girls in Israel celebrate. Jaclyn Kholodenko, Ontario, Canada on her bat mitzvah this month! Jaclyn is helping purchase gifts for the 17 Lev LaLev Bat Mitzvah girls in Israel. Joely and Emerson Arai, Parkland, FL on their bat mitzvah this month! Joely and Emerson are raising funds to help the 17 Lev LaLev Bat Mitzvah girls in Israel celebrate.

The book of Esther is read on Purim, celebrated this year from the evening of February 23rd.

It is taught that when Esther was still young, both her father and mother passed away. Her older relative Mordechai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own.

I think of Esther as a disadvantaged orphan girl who never knew her parents. I see her face in the young women of The Rubin-Zeffren Children’s Home whom we help on a daily basis.

I imagine that Esther must have felt so alone when she was forced to go to the palace and marry the Persian king. When Mordechai brings the Prime Minister Haman’s evil plot to eradicate all the Jewish people living in the Persian Empire to Queen Esther’s attention, she tells him that if she goes to see the king without being asked of, he could have her killed.

Achashverosh and Haman at the Feast of Esther, Rembrandt (1660) 

So Esther puts her faith in G-d and asks Mordechai to have the Jews of Persia fast and pray for her for three days (to commemorate this fast, we refrain from food and drink until sundown on February 21^st  this year); then she will go to the king. ‘And if I perish, I perish’ (Esther 4:16).

I believe so strongly that, just like Esther, our orphaned girls have so much potential, and with the combination of their strength and resolve to grow past their dark pasts, along with all of our support and love, they too will save future generations of the Israeli and Jewish people.

Behold the power of helping one orphan girl reach her fullest potential! I am so happy to be able to celebrate Purim this year with this perspective and hope that now you are too! Chag Purim Sameach! 

Every year Lev LaLev sells Purim cards to benefit the orphaned girls, and this year, we’re asking you, our ambassadors, to help us! Send the link above to all your friends and family. Consider selling the cards in your school or extra-curricular club too!

Lev LaLev is a Jewish Charity aiding the disadvantaged children at the Rubin-Zeffren Children's Home in Netanya, Israel. Your donation is tax deductible and helps build quality Jewish lives for Jewish orphans and underprivileged youth in Israel.